English Dub Review: SK8: The Infinity “King vs Nobody”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Reki officially receives his invitation to replace Shadow, much to everyone’s shock, and while he’s hesitant because of how he doesn’t stack up to most of his friends, he accepts. The match against Adam is rough as he tries the same moves that took out Cherry, but Reki manages to avoid them. The race is neck and neck as Reki taps into his love for skating instead of competition, and while he still ends up losing, he still has the time of his life, while Adam is mentally drained from even nearly losing. Seeing this, Tadashi forfeits his match against Langa, seeing that only facing him will give Adam the lesson he needs.

OUR TAKE
Man, this series is really cutting to the chase with the tournament stuff. This is kind of a nitpick, but as a fan of the tournament arc plot, it irks me when writers decide to cut corners just to get to the matches they want to show instead of giving things the room to breathe and give all the involved characters time to shine. I realize that SK8 only has twelve episodes to work with, so moving things along at this pace is probably necessary, but it is a shame not to see Tadashi actually skate against Langa. But then again, one of the things that has bugged me about this series is how many of the races have kind of blurred together instead of showing much in the way of individual skating styles. I guess it’s sort of a backhanded compliment to say that some of these characters are so complex that I wish they were on a show worth their development. Though at the very least, we do seem to be truly diving into the best this show can get at in its final episodes, as we’re seeing with this surprise (and somewhat forced) confrontation that completes Reki’s character arc and tee’s up Adam to complete his.

As I’ve probably mentioned, Reki started out like someone who I thought I could see through as to where they were taking him. He and Langa had a pretty easy to parse dynamic and I figured it would head in the direction of being escalating rivals on opposite sides and facing each other in the final round of something down the line. I was actually quite surprised when it turned out that Reki would end up swallowed by his own inferiority complex, leaving Langa to flounder and almost be snatched up by Adam. And now we see, thanks to him and Langa reconciling, Reki was actually able to reclaim his love of the sport instead of simply wanting to not suck as bad as he thought he did. It’s a stock and tried lesson in competition shows like this, but it has endured for a reason: it is always better to play for the fun instead of trying to be the best. Even if you don’t win, if you had fun, you kinda did win in the end. Though now, we’re down to the final episode and the final round of Langa vs Adam. Get ready, because there’s gonna be a bit of a wipeout.